Fossils
Pharyngula
Category archives for Fossils
Not like a worm?
Posted by PZ Myers on September 3, 2011 Ann Coulter is back to whining about evolution again, and this week she focuses on fossils. It’s boring predictable stuff: there are no transitional fossils, she says. We also ought to find a colossal number of transitional organisms in the fossil record – for example, a squirrel on its way to becoming a bat, or…
Bacterial fossil doubts resolved
Posted by PZ Myers on August 28, 2011 I raised a few questions about those 3.4 billion year old bacterial fossils, primarily that I was bugged by the large size and that they cited a discredited source to say that they were in the appropriate range of diameters for bacteria. Now my questions have been answered by Chris Nedin, and I’m satisfied. In…
A questions about those ancient bacterial fossils…
Posted by PZ Myers on August 24, 2011 Both Jerry Coyne and Larry Moran have good write-ups on the recent discovery of what are purportedly the oldest fossil cells, at 3.4 billion years old. I just have to add one little comment: a small, niggling doubt and something that bugs me about them. All the smart guys are impressed with this paper, but…
Magnificent momma
Posted by PZ Myers on August 14, 2011 This is one beautiful plesiosaur, Polycotylus latippinus. (Click for larger image) (A) Photograph and (B) interpretive drawing of LACM 129639, as mounted. Adult elements are light brown, embryonic material is dark brown, and reconstructed bones are white. lc indicates left coracoid; lf, left femur; lh, left humerus; li, left ischium; lp, left pubis; rc, right…
Xiaotingia zhengi
Posted by PZ Myers on July 28, 2011 A lovely new dinosaur fossil from China is described in Nature today: it’s named Xiaotingia zhengi, and it was a small chicken-sized, feathered, Archaeopteryx-like beast that lived about 155 million years ago. It shares some features with Archaeopteryx, and also with some other feathered dinosaurs. (Click for larger image)a, b, Photograph (a) and line drawing…
The greatest science paper ever published in the history of humankind
Posted by PZ Myers on July 12, 2011 That’s not hyperbole. I really mean it. How else could I react when I open up the latest issue of Bioessays, and see this: Cephalopod origin and evolution: A congruent picture emerging from fossils, development and molecules. Just from the title alone, I’m immediately launched into my happy place: sitting on a rocky beach on…
Turnabout is fair play
Posted by PZ Myers on July 6, 2011 Phil Senter has published the most deviously underhanded, sneaky, subtle undermining of the creationist position I’ve ever seen, and I applaud him for it. What he did was to take them seriously, something I could never do, and treat their various publications that ape the form of the scientific literature as if they actually were…
Complex eyes in the Cambrian
Posted by PZ Myers on June 30, 2011 I got a letter from a creationist today, claiming that “Darwinism is falsified,” based on an article in Nature. It’s kind of amazing; this article was just published today, and the metaphorical digital ink on it is barely metaphorically dry, and creationists are already busily mangling it. It’s a good article describing some recent fossil…
Dyslexic Borat says, “Sexy Mite!”
Posted by PZ Myers on March 10, 2011 It’s a real shame. Forty million years ago, this pair of mites, Glaesacarus rhombeus, had just buckled down to a happy grind, when plop, a drop of tree sap fell on them and entombed them in flagrante delicto. Also, coitus interruptus. And as long as we’re slinging around the Latin, Perfututum!. Notice that they mate…
Paleontologists at work
Posted by PZ Myers on August 5, 2010 I’m going to break another webcam, aren’t I? While you can, you can actually watch a dinosaur dig in progress in Svalbard, Norway. (Strictly speaking, though, it looks like they’re excavating pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs, not dinosaurs.) I’m amused that it looks exactly like the the big construction project on the county courthouse in Morris, Minnesota:…